


The Science of Attraction

by stephistep



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Awkward Crush, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, High School, M/M, Minho Ships It, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Newt, Oblivious Newt (Maze Runner), Partners to Lovers, Project Partners, School Project, Slow Burn, awkward thomas, but not really, classmates to lovers, kind of, newt dislikes thomas at first, project partners to lovers, thomas loves newt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26605399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephistep/pseuds/stephistep
Summary: Newt hated Thomas. Thomas was a loud mouth and a know-it-all and he did it while looking devastatingly good and it was infuriating. So you can imagine the kind of negative reaction Newt had when he heard he would have to pair up with the boy for his psych project. Not just any psychology project; a psychology project on attraction, something that Newt knew very well when it came to the other boy.
Relationships: Newt/Thomas (Maze Runner)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 63





	1. Project Time

Newt hated Thomas. Thomas was a loud mouth and a know-it-all and he did it while looking devastatingly good and it was infuriating. He only had one class with the other boy but one was too many in his opinion. Every question the teacher asked Thomas’ hand was sure to shoot up and Newt hated him for it. He hated him for knowing things without having to try while Newt had to study for hours, and he hated him for being loud when Newt struggled to speak at a normal volume. Essentially, he hated him for being everything Newt was not and everything he wished he could be: admired, intelligent, confident. Most of all, he hated Thomas for distracting him every second of his bloody AP psych class as if his grades weren’t bad enough. 

So you can imagine the kind of negative reaction Newt had when he heard he would have to pair up with the boy for his psych project. Not just any psychology project; a psychology project on attraction, something that Newt knew very well when it came to the other boy. From the very first day Newt saw Thomas he was immediately attracted to him. As time went on and he realized how annoying he was that went away a bit, but never entirely. So, it was only fitting that he’d be assigned a partner he’s attracted to on a project about attraction. Sure, maybe he’d finally get a decent grade on an assignment, but at what cost? 

Newt looked up from his desk when he saw the feet approaching him, all the more annoyed when he saw it was none other than Thomas.  
“Uh, hey,” the boy said, scratching his neck which of course, he even managed to do endearingly. “Hello,” Newt replied coldly. Thomas looked around before grabbing the seat next to Newt’s desk and dragging it across the floor, making a terrible screeching sound all the while.  
“So, attraction…you know much about it?” Thomas asked, obviously attempting at breaking the ice with humor but Newt did very well at hiding any trace of a positive reaction. The last thing he wanted was this boy thinking they were buddy-buddy. “Yeah, a bit.” Thomas awkwardly stared straight at him, not quite sure what to reply. “So, um, what should our thesis be?” Newt had an idea and if he wanted a good grade he might as well voice it. “We could do it on how attraction is mostly controlled by chemicals and stuff in the brain and that you don’t necessarily have to like someone to be attracted to them.” Newt hoped this wasn’t a dead giveaway but by the look on Thomas’ face he knew the boy was too clueless to suspect anything.  
“Yeah, I think that could work. We could talk about all the hormones and chemicals involved and what the body subconsciously seeks due to the innate desire to keep your own bloodline going.” Newt gaped. “Do you always speak like you’re reading straight from a bloody textbook?” Thomas laughed.

That was another thing Newt hated about Thomas: his laugh. He was generally a happy person and despite not seeing him much Newt felt like he heard it all the time and he hated that he liked it, that he wanted to hear it more. 

“Sorry, sometimes my mind works too fast and too slow at the same time so I don’t really think about what I’m saying before I say it.” Thomas shifts his eyes to his notebook writing down some notes on their project, he seems nervous almost. Weird. Newt decided to ignore it, he probably just sensed that Newt hated him. ‘I’m sure that can get you in a lot of trouble.” Newt laughed along with Thomas who didn’t seem the least bit bothered at his weak jab, “you have no idea, man.” At that the bell rang and Newt made quick to get out of his seat before Thomas placed a hand on his shoulder. “Um, do you want to work on the project after school? Maybe at the library?” Newt didn’t want to do that but he also wanted to get to his next class, away from the other boy, more. “Yeah sure I’ll see you at like 2?” And he walked out the door not waiting for a response. Thomas stared after him taking only a second to think of the warm sensation in his hand before he made his way to his own class. 

Of course, in his next class Thomas even bothered him there by doing nothing but run through his head. Why did he seem so nervous? Did he have to touch him to get his attention? Is that something he’s gonna continue to do? He had so many questions and none of theme were about his current class.


	2. The 5 Senses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Thomas have their first work session and are able to teach each other a few things about attraction.

Newt trudged his way to the library when the final bell rang, waving bye to his friend Alby, he went through the door looking around for Thomas. When he doesn’t see him Newt bets he’s one of those people who’s late to everything, he seems the type. 

Thomas ran in when the clock read 2:10, he was late but not horribly so. “Hey sorry I’m late, I was late to my last class so I had to stay after and talk to the teacher, and the classroom is on the other side of school.” Thomas breathed a little heavily probably having jogged here. Newt almost laughed at how spot on his guess was.  
“It’s alright, mate, wasn’t waiting too long.” That was a lie Newt had got there right after the bell rang at 1:45 and he wasn’t quite sure why he was lying to the boy. He guesses a small part of him doesn’t want the boy to feel bad for something that wasn’t entirely his fault. That shouldn’t be the case though because Newt hates him.  
‘I hate him,’ Newt reminded himself. 

“So I already started thinking about it and I thought one of the first things we could cover is the biological view and how there are a lot of factors that play in beyond our own mindset. Like, we’re made to be able to sense other people’s immune system and we innately search for one the opposite of ours which is where the ‘opposites attract’ theory comes from.” Thomas seemed so interested in this, no wonder he was so good at it. If Newt was honest his excitement was kind of attractive but Newt didn’t think of himself as a very honest person. “Wow, that’s really cool actually. We should definitely include that, good job.” He didn’t really intend to sound so impressed but he definitely did and Thomas flushed in embarrassment, “thanks.”  
“So you can cover that first and I was thinking I could cover the different senses and how they all contribute to whether or not we’re attracted to someone. The look in Thomas’ eyes was almost one of awe but Newt wasn’t really sure why. “Yeah that sounds perfect.” Oddly overly nice but Newt guesses that’s just another thing about the boy, he’s nice. 

“How do the senses contribute to attraction?” Thomas asked, breaking the twenty minute long silence they had going. It took Newt a second to process the question confused that there was something Thomas didn’t know.  
“Well the sight is influenced by culture and preferences and it’s the first one that works, so appearances do matter it seems. The sight helps us decide if we have an interest in getting closer and letting the other senses take a turn. The smell looks for stuff like pheromones and also if they just smell nice, I’m sure their pheromones don’t matter much if they smell like they just walked out of a dumpster.” Thomas laughed, he had a look in his eyes that, this time, Newt couldn’t quite decipher. “Yeah, that has a lot to do with the immune system thing actually.”  
“Cool, that means we can tie them together pretty well.” 

“So you told me sight and smell. What do the other senses do, oh wise Newt?”  
Newt chuckled before continuing his explanation from the day before, “well both genders listen for a specific pitch and way of talking in the others voice, men like women with higher voices and women like men with deeper voices. I’m not sure what the case is for gay people though, science is very heteronormative.” Thomas chuckled, nodding his head in agreement. Good, no comment about gay people, so he more than likely wasn’t a homophobe. Not that Newt cares what Thomas thinks of him or of anything. He just doesn’t want to have to spend his days with a bigot is all.  
“I don’t know much about touch I know that one study said temperature affected the person’s outlook on another person’s personality but beyond that I don’t know. You think it would go into more depth about like the warmth and the butterflies and all that good stuff.”  
“Taste mostly has to do with the first kiss which is also when smell comes into play a bit. Like if I had a terribly smelly lunch and then I kissed you right now you’d most likely not enjoy it and maybe be less attracted to me if you hypothetically were.” Thomas chuckled, a lot lighter than before and Newt allowed himself a brief moment to notice how red Thomas’ face was. He assumed he was just uncomfortable with the thought, just because he wasn’t homophobic doesn’t mean he would be super comfortable being hypothetically queer. “Feelings also mess with your sense of time which is why people say ’time flies’ and shit like that. Time isn’t really a sense but kind of, at least it’s interesting.” Thomas nodded along, seemingly very interested in what Newt was saying. “Yeah, I get what you mean like right now it feels like barely any time has passed but it’s been almost an hour.”  
“Exactly.” Newt froze, realizing what that implied: that they liked each other, or at least, spending time together. Newt quickly cleared his throat turning towards his papers on the floor, “it’s pretty interesting.” He could feel Thomas’ eyes trained on the side of his face but he decided not to do anything about it.  
“Yeah it’s really interesting.” Thomas turned towards his own papers and began working on his own section of the writing and they sat in silence, much like they did before, until Thomas broke it again. 

“Apparently body language is one of the most attractive things. Like if you’re open physically people tend to like you more. Thomas read the article, slowly moving his hand to the left to put it just in Newt’s line of sight and turned himself more towards the other boy.  
“Really? How do you be physically open in a not inappropriate way?” Thomas laughed. “Um, I’m not really sure. But if you’re closed off like your arms or crossed or you’re covering your torso you seem more intimidating.” Newt took the time to look at his own body, rigid and faced away from Thomas, and then Thomas’ body, turned towards him and comfortably stretched like he felt safe. “For example, your body language suggests that you don’t like me very much.” Newt froze. A part of him didn’t like Thomas very much but that didn’t mean he wanted him to know that. Newt scoffed in obvious discomfort. “Did I do something to make you hate me?” Thomas asked moving his laptop and papers away in order to face his whole body towards Newt.  
“I don’t hate you.” Thomas rolled his eyes. “Maybe you don’t, but the way you said hate implies that you at least don’t like me.” Newt sighed turning to face Thomas too. “I just usually don’t really get along with super smart people. But look at my body language now,” he motioned towards his now open stance, “see, I don’t hate you.” Thomas turned back towards his stuff, shifting his laptop onto his lap. “Yeah, okay.” Now, Newt hadn’t read the article but he was willing to bet this was considered closed off and, even though he shouldn’t, he felt bad. Just because he didn’t necessarily like the other boy doesn’t mean he wanted him to know that and feel unwanted. But instead of saying he liked him he stayed quiet, ‘it’s not like he really cares how I feel about him,’ Newt thought.  
“I hate that the alpha omega beta fan fiction writers are on to something when they say someone can sense a period of fertility. I truly hate that. Men can sense if a woman is ovulating we are bloody animals.” Newt brought this up in an attempt to distract Thomas from the previous conversation, having noticed he hadn’t so much as scrolled down in 10 minutes.  
Thomas smiled. “You know, you’re really smart.” Newt scoffed, coming from Thomas that was rich and most definitely not true.  
“I mean it, you are.” Thomas made direct eye contact with Newt - which frankly he was not a big fan of - and smiled. Newt tried his best to smile back in a way that didn’t look forced. 

While Thomas was still looking into Newt’s eyes, weirdly enough, an alarm quietly went off. “Oh, wow time really does fly,” Newt snickered at the callback, “I have to get to track practice, sorry to cut this short.”  
“Oh, you’re on the track team?” Thomas nods. “Yeah, I used to be on it as well but then I had to leave.” Thomas looks surprised. “Oh really? That’s cool! When did you leave?”  
“Middle of freshman year.”  
“Wow we just missed each other, I started sophomore year. Man, we could’ve been friends years ago.” Newt wouldn’t consider themselves friends but Thomas said it so enthusiastically that all he did was smile and chuckle a bit and wave goodbye to Thomas as he walked out of the door.  
Thomas turned and yelled back, “same time tomorrow?” A librarian shushed him and he looked bashful for a second. Newt didn’t really know why this question made him uncomfortable. Not a bad uncomfortable just, different, it felt weird to think of being in the other boys’ presence two days in a row. “Sure.” Thomas smiled and said one final goodbye before he shuffled out of the library, his books hugged to his chest. 

’That wasn’t so bad,’ Newt thought as he left. Maybe the project wouldn’t be too awful, and it would probably help his grade. Maybe the cost wasn’t too high after all. 

The next day in the hallway Newt caught eyes with Thomas and gave him a nod of recognition, expecting that to be the extent of their interaction. But apparently Newt still had a ways to go in predicting Thomas’ behavior as he ended his conversation with his friends and jogged up to Newt.  
“Hey Newt, I was wondering if today you’d want to study at one of our houses instead? I just thought it’d be more comfortable and there’s no people so I can be loud.” Newt had never taken Thomas to be a nervous person but every time he talked to him he seemed overrun with nerves. Weird.  
“Sure, sounds good.” Thomas smiled and left to catch up with his friends waving to him as he went.


	3. Home Study

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get a lot of work done and a lot of talking.

It did not sound good..at all. In fact, it sounded quite bad. Newt did not like the idea of complete solitude with his classmate in the slightest.  
Sadly though, he had already agreed. So there he was, directly after school, in the bedroom of the annoying and cute boy in his class.  
“Come on in.” Thomas opened the door and gestured Newt in like some weird butler. “Thanks,” Newt said hesitantly.  
“Okay, so I finished my original part what else can I write about?” Newt considered for a moment before he remembered an article he read on the four main elements of attraction; proximity, similarity, physical attractiveness, and reciprocity. “We could write about how often people like someone who is likely to like them back. It’s called reciprocity and it makes us more inclined to like people if we know they like us.” Thomas looked doubtful. “I’m gonna have to call bullshit on that one. That is most definitely not something that has been true in my experience.” Thomas scoffed. Newt drew his eyebrows together in confusion. Thomas had crushes that weren’t reciprocated? Newt finds that hard to believe. Simply because he seems like a fine person no other reason. “Well it’s not always at work it’s just really common. Maybe you just have bad luck in love.” Thomas had a look in his eyes that Newt couldn’t quite decipher, “you have no idea. My brain definitely did not take into account if he could like me back just decided to give me absolutely no shot.” Thomas laughed. Newt didn’t join in on the laughter too caught up in the fact that Thomas had just said he. No doubt about it, he very clearly said he. Thomas seemed to realize this soon after and turned bright red, turning back to his work probably hoping to entirely ignore what he had said. Newt felt a little too awkward just leaving it in silence after a very sharing comment like that. “That sucks.” Well, that didn’t really help much now did it? “If it’s any consolation, I get it, q I usually go for people who just wouldn’t even consider me.” Newt laughed lightly, mostly a forced laugh in the hopes to make Thomas more comfortable. “I don’t know who wouldn’t consider you.”  
See, that was weird because he could’ve sworn he heard Thomas say…but he probably misheard. He chose to ignore the comment assuming he hadn’t meant for Newt to hear it in the first place.  
“Yeah, I’ll look into it and write on that, could help go towards our thesis of not being in control of who we like, I mean really all of this does because psychology really doesn’t care who we want to like just who we do.” Newt nodded. Boy did he understand that. 

Newt had just started to write about the role proximity plays on attraction when Thomas spoke up, “I think this is one of the weaker theories of attraction. It goes against every cheesy movie where the social outcast has a crush on the popular kid who they 'have no chance with'.” Newt considered that for a minute. “I mean you would think so but in those movies they usually do end up having a chance with those popular people, in fact in most of them they end up with the person they thought was out of their league. I guess in the long run no one is exactly out of someone else’s league maybe everyone isn’t that unlikely to like you back.” Thomas looked doubtful. “I mean, I guess, I don’t fully buy it though. If the guy I liked was to like me back then maybe I’d believe it.” Newt didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t expected Thomas to be someone so unsure of himself. “You never know maybe he does. Speaking of, that’s the second time you’ve mentioned this guy. Who is he?” Newt had never seen Thomas looked more panicked before, of course that wasn’t saying much he hadn’t seen him panicked at all. “Um, no one you know probably. It doesn’t matter it’ll probably go away soon, hopefully.” Newt frowned at that. “Are the two of you close? Because then we both know that it’s probably only going to get stronger. Besides, crushes make life interesting.”  
“Yeah, we’re getting closer. You have a crush?” Newt decided to ignore the question in favor of hopefully building Thomas up. “I mean, if you’re getting close you never know, you could have a chance. Besides you’re nice, and smart, and good looking I’m sure you have more of a chance than you think.” Newt patted Thomas on the back in a sign of support and Thomas practically froze in place. “Thanks Newt. I really appreciate it, you’re so kind. I don’t know who you like but I’m not sure who would be dumb enough to not consider you.” Newt tried his best to not turn bright red, that was incredibly close to what he had said earlier. He must have failed at not blushing though because Thomas looked very proud and softly brushed his hand against Newt’s cheeks seemingly subconsciously. When he realized what he had done he pulled his hand away quick, like it had been burned. “Sorry I,” he chuckled “I don’t know why I did that.” Thomas and his cheeks were a matching bright red at this point and it confused Newt to no end. He knew why he was blushing but why was Thomas?  
“So how’s your part going? What you writing about?”  
“Oh I actually don’t really buy into this one that much either, I’m writing about how closeness contributes to who you like and like sometimes that’s right, like if you spend more time together you’ll like them more, but it doesn’t work for things like long distance relationships.” Thomas nodded his head in agreement.  
“So you don’t have track today?” Newt asked, not quite wanting to get back to his work yet.  
“Oh, no, practice is every other day so we can work however long we want today.” 

“Alright I’m done writing about reciprocity.” Newt glanced at the time, it had been 3 hours since they started working.”I feel like either you work super fast or I’m just bloody slow.” Thomas chuckled, a pink hue painting his cheeks. “I’m not that fast.”  
Newt smirked, “you calling me slow, Tommy?” Newt noticed his mistake a second too late, he had called him Tommy. Thomas had the nerve to look positively overjoyed at Newt’s slip-up.  
“Is it weird hat I kind of love how that sounds coming from you? Like others have tried calling me that and I hated it. Maybe it’s the accent?” How the hell was Newt supposed to take that? Does that mean he likes his accent? “I don’t think it’s weird..so you don’t mind?” Thomas tilted his head in question, ‘like a bloody puppy,’ Newt thought. “Mind what?”  
“Me calling you Tommy?”  
“Oh, no. I’d actually prefer you call me that, looking back you saying Thomas sounded weird.”  
“And here I was thinking everything sounded better in my accent.” Was his accent thicker there? Why did he do that? Thomas laughed though, “I mean, you’re not wrong.” Newt blushed for what was probably the hundredth time that afternoon. 

Once Thomas’ window had begun to show the setting sun Newt realized he should probably get home. “I think I should go, I don’t wanna be late for dinner. I think we’re close to being done with the project though.” Thomas’ face fell for reasons unknown to Newt. “I’ll walk you out.”  
When they got to the front door they both hesitated. It was as if they both wanted to do something but didn’t know how, or if they should. “Am I off your list of people you hate?” Newt rolled his eyes. “I never hated you, Tommy. But if it makes you feel better,” Thomas’ face lit up with something akin to hope, “I think you’re pretty cool. Don’t worry, as far as I’m concerned you’ve been moved to the short list of people I like.” Newt smiled at Thomas who looked happy as could be. “I’ll see you later Newt.” 

Newt turned and went to walk away, “oh wait, Newt!” Thomas called after him.  
He turned around, “yeah, what’s up?” Thomas looked nervous again, much like he did when they first started their project. “Do you think..you’d want to hang out…like..after we’re done with the project.” Newt was surprised to say the least. He had no doubt that Thomas liked him as a person but he had no clue that he liked him enough to hang out with him beyond for schoolwork. “Um, yeah sure, sounds good. Do you want my number or something?” Thomas beamed at him and nodded so Newt unlocked his phone, opening up a new contact and handing it over to him. Thomas grabbed the phone from him, fingertips brushing his and his hands shaking softly. He gave Newt his number and handed it back quickly.  
“Ok, now I’ll see you later.” Thomas said smiling before he turned into his house and closed the door leaving Newt confused on the other side, fingertips warm from where they touched Thomas’.


	4. Bean Bag Freakout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a little peak into Thomas' side of things and Minho is here!

“He doesn’t hate me Minho!” Thomas yelled from the doorway to his best friend’s house. Minho groaned, pausing his game and setting down his controller, getting ready for another long conversation about their classmate Newt. Thomas practically gallops up the stairs and throws his book bag next to Minho like he does every Friday after school.  
“Really? You sure? Because last you checked he certainly didn’t like you.” Minho loved teasing Thomas about how much Newt disliked him, lovingly of course he knew it didn’t bother the other boy.  
“Yeah, I like semi jokingly asked today and he said he considers me on his short list of people he likes!” Thomas lets out a deep lovestruck sigh and plops down onto Minho’s other bean bag.  
“You’re really making progress, bud.” Minho had been listening to Thomas’ ranting and raving about Newt since the beginning of the school year, bless his soul. 

On the very first day Thomas had practically body slammed Minho into their lunch table in his urge to sit down and talk to him. “Woah there! The school’s Italian dunkers really excite you huh?” Thomas rolled his eyes.  
“No, but you know what does excite me? Pretty blonde British boys in my AP psych class!” Minho cringed. “I love you, man, but I don’t know if I wanna hear about that type of excitement, no offense.” Thomas slapped his shoulder taking a large bite of his apple and proceeding to talk with his mouth mostly full.  
“It’s not like that! I just think he’s really pretty. He has these eyes that are like the darkest eyes I’ve ever seen and you’d think that’d be intimidating but we made eye contact and I just felt…safe, I don’t know.”  
Minho gave him a disbelieving look, mixed with a little ‘dude you sound crazy’. 

It was the same look he was giving him now after Thomas had just said he’d “finally got Newt’s number!” Then practically hugged the phone to his chest. It was weird and Thomas wouldn’t deny that but he wasn’t really concerned with how he looked in front of the other boy anymore.  
“So, when’s the honeymoon?” Minho teased, picking back up his controller and unpausing his game, thinking the conversation would be mostly one sided from that point on.  
“Very funny. I think it’s going really well though and our project is gonna be great we’ve worked on it for like 5 hours in two days it’s crazy we’ve got so much done!”  
Minho paused his game again. “You mean to tell me this guy managed to be around your shank ass that long AND got you to focus on your work for more than like 10 minutes at a time? Is he magic?”  
“Maybe he is I wouldn’t be surprised he does kind of look elven. But I mean I still got distracted don’t get me wrong we’ve also done a lot of talking.” Thomas’ face dropped at that and Minho placed his controller down, worried at his expression.  
“Speaking of, we talked about crushes and apparently he has one. So I’m not making as much progress as I had hoped but we’re basically friends so that’s cool, at least.”  
Minho raised his eyebrow at him, “he managed to spend like 3 hours with you the other day. Isn’t it possible you’re his crush?” Thomas’ eyes nearly popped out of his skull before he quickly composed himself.  
“No way, dude. He said the person he likes doesn’t even consider him and I’ve accidentally made it pretty obvious how much I consider him.”  
“Yeah, if that’s what you wanna call talking about him everyday for 5 months and probably jerking one-“  
Thomas cut him off with a swift punch to his arm.  
“You always make it seem so sexual! I actually like him more than that, thank you very much. I like how nice he is, I like his accent, speaking of, he called me ’Tommy’ today, can you believe it? It sounded great and he blushed like several times from embarrassment but it was super cute. I just look clammy when I get flustered. Oh, and I like how smart he is, but he’s also super humble about it, or maybe he just doesn’t think he’s as smart as he is but he’s like super smart. I mean don’t get me wrong I’ve thought about him that way loads and-.”

This time Minho cut him off by promptly unpausing his game and turning the volume up near full blast.  
“You’re the one who took it there. Can’t even handle it.” Thomas muttered and scoffed.


	5. Just a Little Nap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt get to talking about themselves.

This is most likely what will be their last day working on the project and Thomas was disappointed to say the least. Getting to see Newt this often really lifted his spirit, even if the boy did like someone else. 

“So today you wanna write about physical attractiveness?” Newt said setting his backpack down on Thomas’ floor and sitting criss crossed on the ground.   
He smiled at him, “sure!”   
Newt told him he’d be working on similarity leaving Thomas to do attractiveness, which he wasn’t against.   
“Yeah, so like, just connect the physical attractiveness back to how we don’t have control, because we don’t really have control over who we find attractive you could be attracted to someone you don’t like.”   
Thomas nodded, “that ever happened to you?” Newt looked hesitant to say the next sentence before apparently ultimately deciding to bite the bullet. “At first I didn’t like you but I’ve always found you attractive.” Newt shrugged as if this sentence didn’t entirely change Thomas’ world. Newt found him attractive..and he liked him now. That was basically confirmation that he had a chance. Of course, if he ever got over the crush he had on that random person who was dumb enough to not consider him. Thomas had gone dead silent, trapped inside his own head and Newt seemed to get concerned at that.   
“Sorry, did I make you uncomfortable?” Thomas was quick to shake his head no, probably too quick.   
“No, not at all! I just was surprised,” Thomas decided if Newt could be honest so could he, “I find you attractive too and I guess I never considered that you could think the same of me.” He finished off his statement with a light chuckle that didn’t really overshadow his obvious nervousness.   
Newt blushed bright red before laughing lightly and saying, “thanks, mate.” They both sat there, faces equally flushed from embarrassment and something else, not quite knowing how to continue their conversation and deciding to go to their work. 

As time went on and they continued to work in silence Newt seemed to get slower and slower, obviously tired.   
“You good there, Newt?”   
“Yeah, just bloody exhausted.” He said laying down on the ground, all over their work.   
“Just make yourself comfortable.” Thomas laughed, trying to draw his eyes away from the sliver of Newt’s skin that had revealed itself when he stretched out. Newt caught his eyes right after he had moved them, he had most definitely caught him.   
Newt pulled his shirt down. ‘Great, now look what you’ve done, you’ve made him uncomfortable,’ Thomas thought. “If I fall asleep, I apologize in advance.” Newt laughed and Thomas waved him off, “nah, it’s okay, go ahead, we’re almost done anyways.” 

After another thirty minutes Newt glanced over to Thomas thoughtfully. “I don’t feel like we know each other well enough.” Thomas stopped typing in something near shock.   
“Um, yeah I guess we don’t. What do you wanna know?”   
Newt looked about to speak before he thought about it and went to move the laptop off of Thomas’ lap and replacing it with his own head. Thomas froze. “I’m still tired so I’m going to use you as a pillow while we take our break.” Newt said easily, like this was no big deal, something totally casual for them despite having only been properly hanging out for three days now.   
“So do you have any siblings?” Newt asked breaking Thomas out of his near panic at their sudden close proximity. “Um, no, I’m an only child but my best friend, Teresa, is practically my sister.” Newt smiled, “I have a sister, her name is Sonya.” Thomas hadn’t known they were related but looking back they do look similar, Sonya doesn’t have an accent that he’s noticed though. “Yeah, I know of her. Why doesn’t she have an accent like you?”   
“We moved from England when she was really young and so she heard the American accent more than the English one. You tend to pick up accents from your peers more than your family but I was old enough to where I already had the accent when we got here.” Thomas nodded, he was honestly thankful for Newt's accent. It made him unique and honestly, even more attractive in Thomas’ opinion.   
“Do you have any pets?” Thomas asked, realizing they’d gone about as far as they could on that topic.   
“I have a cat, a little tabby named Jello.” Thomas awed loudly at that making Newt laugh. “Sonya named him when she was five, it’s a cute name though.”   
“It’s like the cutest name I’ve heard for a cat. Can I meet him?” Newt laughed, “yeah sure, when we hang out we can go to my house so you can see him.” Thomas clapped in excitement.   
“Do you have a pet I’ve somehow never managed to see while we were here?”   
“No, I’ve always wanted a dog though,” Thomas sighed.   
“You a dog person?” Newt poked Thomas in the stomach playfully, not really sure why he did it.  
“I’m a both person in every meaning of the word. I’m just big on cuddling and it’s hard to find a cat who wants to cuddle.” Newt nodded, taking in their position and considering the fact that Thomas had never so much as made a comment on it.   
“Ah no wonder you’re fine with me laying all over your lap.” Newt laughed looking up at Thomas whose cheeks were painted pink again.   
“Oh, yeah I really don’t mind it’s no problem. I do wish I had a dog though because sometimes I just really want a big ole hug you know? That makes me sound ridiculous, sorry, I’m just kind of a softie I guess, Minho always messes with me about it cause I’m like a really touchy person with all of my friends so this is actually not very-.”   
Thomas looked down, wondering why Newt was letting him ramble so much until he noticed that Newt was definitely asleep. 

Thomas wasn’t really sure what the right thing to do in this scenario was. A friend, who you have a huge crush on, laying on your lap..asleep. He knew what he wanted to do and that was to run his fingers through Newt’s hair. If he was honest he had seen Newt do it hundreds of times in class and always wished he could do it too and being that he was asleep he was heavily considering it. Newt sighed in his sleep and nuzzled his head further into Thomas’ lap and without even thinking Thomas lowered his hand and ran it through Newt’s hair. Newt leaned into the touch in his sleep but didn’t show any sign of waking up. Thomas glanced at his laptop considering getting back to work he turned it back on to see that twenty minutes had passed since they started talking and he obviously hadn’t been sleeping that whole time. Newt startled a little when Thomas moved to reach his laptop and, not wanting to wake him up, Thomas slowly leaned back to his original position. If Newt was tired enough to fall asleep on his friend’s lap then he must need sleep so maybe Thomas should just let him. Thomas leaned back against his bed and continued to run his fingers through the other boys’ hair before letting his eyes fall closed as well.


End file.
